Guns, Germs & $teal: Girls Take Streetwear
“Guns, Germs and Steel” is the title of an influential 1997 book on the history of civilization. This year, Los Angeles–based streetwear line Guns, Germs & $teal made a play on the tome’s name—and, like the book’s title, the female designers of this line of men’s streetwear intend to shake things up.
To some, the most novel thing about the line is the gender of Smiley Stevens and Philippa Price, the line’s designers and founders, said Kurt Narmore, who manufactures the line with his Los Angeles–based company, California Apparel Manufacturing. “The streetwear market is all dudes,” he said of the skateboard-, punk rock– and hip-hop–obsessed genre. “This is like me trying to design lace shorts for women. It’s weird.”
Influential streetwear designer Rick Klotz and showroom owner Willard Ford have championed the duo, and their initial designs were picked up by independent streetwear boutiques such as Raised by Wolves in Brooklyn, N.Y., and High Standard in Tokyo.
The debut of the line’s first product quickly convinced Stevens and Price that they had a future in streetwear. It was a metal cigarette case inlaid with vintage serapé fabric. The duo had taken classes in metal working and made the cases for friends. Stevens sent one of the cases to a styling website, Cool Material, and within days hundreds of people made inquiries of where they could buy them.
Stevens and Price continue to design jewelry— think necklaces with small switchbladeknife charms on them—but they also branched into apparel. On Aug. 9, they hosted a party for the first collection at the Skid Row–adjacent gallery Suede Studios in downtown Los Angeles, where they displayed 13 cut-and-sew pieces along with 10 graphic tees.
The line’s signature looks featured classic American styles detailed with the unexpected.
In the case of Guns, Germs & $teal’s letterman’s jackets, the garments’ armholes are made out of a bright serape material.
Some of the line’s T-shirts feature graphics of the pictures of Robert Yager, who documented Los Angeles street gangs in the 1990s.
One jean jacket features lining graced with images of Mexican cowgirls. Wholesale price points are $15 to $20 for T-shirts, $40 to $50 for woven shirts and $70 to $150 for jackets.
For more information, contact delly@24karat.com.
—Andrew Asch
